Lee, long ball spark Phillies past Mets

PHILADELPHIA – Before the Phillies and Mets squared off Tuesday night, Michael Young gave his take on how the Phils might rectify their morbid opening seven games to the season.

“It’s never really ever one thing,” Young said. “It can be a three-run homer, it can be a ground ball that hits a sprinkler and you get a double. It can be anything.”

Interestingly enough for the veteran third baseman, the only thing that got between him and hitting for the cycle at Citizens Bank Park a few hours later was finding that sprinkler head

Young had a rally-starting single in his first at-bat in the second inning, his first home run as a Phillie in his next at-bat in the third, and an RBI triple in his third plate appearance in the fourth inning. Although he didn’t get the double to complete the cycle, Young helped lead the Phils to an 8-3 win.

Veteran reliever LaTroy Hawkins got Young to ground out in his final at-bat to lead off the seventh.

“The sprinkler would’ve been nice,” said Young, who is hitting .345 and is tied with Chase Utley for the most times reaching base this season (14). “LaTroy is a really good pitcher. I’ve faced him a lot over the years, and he’s still doing it. I was happy where we were, and it’s not really that big a deal at all.

“We had a lot of energy tonight, and that’s something we really wanted to focus on – playing with more energy, more enthusiasm. We felt like the results would follow.”

Cliff Lee, who pitched eight innings of two-hit ball in his first start, improved to 2-0 on the young season, coming one out shy of a complete game. After he allowed a pair of hits in the top of the ninth, Charlie Manuel came to get the veteran left-hander, much to the chagrin of a fan base that’s ornery after the Phils lost five of their first seven games. However, Mike Adams finished off the win with a strikeout of Ruben Tejada.

Young said the team talked about bringing more juice to the game after a dead effort in Monday’s 7-2 loss to the Mets. He thought Lee led the way with his no-nonsense performance on the mound.

“I’ve loved playing behind Cliff,” said Young, who briefly played with Lee in Texas. “He’s basically a baseball player who pitches. He loves to compete; he has a bad at-bat and he gets pissed. It’s a lot of fun to play with guys like that.

“If we go out there and play like that, we feel like the results will be there. For a while we were having trouble getting that big hit. Tonight was hopefully the start of something good.”

The cycle has been elusive for Young. This was the fourth time in his hit-filled career that Young has fallen a double shy of it. He’s also missed the cycle by a home run three times, and by a triple 22 times.

“The 29th time?” Young said, eyes popping when he was told how often he came one hit shy. “Are you bleeping kidding me? Well, I did it in college, so I’m good.

“To be honest – they aren’t overrated, it’s a good game – but the stars do have to line up a little bit to hit for the cycle. I would never, ever stop. If I hit a ball in the gap, I probably would have gone for third. You don’t aim for a cycle, it just happens. If it happens and you play the right way, then congratulations.”

The Phillies did a great deal of hitting against Mets starter Dillon Gee. After a quiet first inning they batted around in the second, getting five hits in the inning, including an RBI single by Lee that made it 3-0. Jimmy Rollins followed it two batters later with an RBI double that staked Lee to a 4-0 lead.

Those 4-0 leads have been poison for the Phils this season. They’ve let two of them get away, so tacking on three more runs in the third certainly helped. Those all came with the long ball, as Ryan Howard opened the inning with his first home run (and extra-base hit) of the season to deep left-center field. Young followed with his homer, also to the opposite field. After a Dom Brown fly out, John Mayberry Jr. roped his first home of the year just inside the left-field foul pole.

From there, Lee focused on throwing strikes. Although he was facing a lineup that had a history of hitting success against him, the only major mistake he made was getting a fastball within John Buck’s reach. The catcher’s two-run homer pushed his National League-best RBI total to 14 on the young season.

Otherwise, it was an eerily calm night for a team that has had a great deal of turmoil in the early stages of this season.

“I was just throwing strikes and making them swing their way on base,” Lee said. “We were making plays … I was just being aggressive, trying to stay away from hitter-friendly counts.”